Many battery-powered load drivers, such as the drivers found in automotive vehicles, must be designed so that when the battery is mistakenly connected with reverse polarity (i.e., connected with a polarity that is opposite to the normal, intended polarity), the load driver does not malfunction or dissipate high levels of power. Some such drivers that use mechanical switches and relays are easily able to meed this criteria, but drivers that use semiconductor devices in place of their mechanical counterparts can be more difficult to protect. In some cases, it may be necessary to include a relatively large heat sink to carry away the heat generated by a semiconductor device when a reverse-battery condition exists. Of course, since it is desirable to minimize the cost, complexity and size of such electronic load drivers, the use of a large heat sink, or other complicated schemes, is unsatisfactory.